Sheet glass forming and annealing method and apparatus



Septf27, 1932- J. SYLVESTER SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan- 2 1929 18 She ets-Sheet l o MuwJ 5 tors-om euk ur u P 1932' J. SYLVESTER 1,879,998

SHEET GLA SS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21, 1929 IS'SheetS-Sheet 2 G GGGU GO QQ QQQ Se t. 27, 1932.

' J. SYLVESTER SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21. 1929 gwmmto'c 18 Sheets-Sheet 5 Sept. 27, 1932. J. SYLVES'l ER SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21. 1929 18'Sheets-Sheet -4 WIN duozucq Sept. 27, 1932. J. SYLVESTER 1,879,998

SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS l8 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Jan. 21. 1929 am la Sept. 27, 1932. J SYLVESTER 1,879,998

SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Sept. 27, 1932. .1. SYLVESTER 1,879,998

SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21. 1929 lBSheets-Shet 7 J. SYLVESTER Sept. 27, 1932.

SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARAT US 18 Sheets-Sheet 8 Filed Jan. 21, 1929 llllllilllllmfimn p 27, 1932- J. YLVESTER 1,879,998

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Sept; 27; 1932. .9. SYLVESTER SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS wws l8 Sheets-Shet 12 Filed Jan. 21, 1929 Sept. 27, 1932. J. SYLVESTER 1,879,998

SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21, 1929 ls-sneets-sheet 15 Sept. 2?, 19320 J. SYLVESTER SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21. 1929 18 Sheets-Sheet 14 p 27, 1932- J. SYLVEST-ER 7 1,879,998

SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21. 1929 IB'Sheets-Sheet 15 o S o 0 LL w G) o Q 0 f O O h o o O o O 3 i o Q I I Q A I llll 3 6 o o o r ,4 Q a o 4 o o 0 Q r (I) u:- w 0 o o "a v 3 o w s 0 Sept. 27, 1932. J SYLVESTER 1,879,998

SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21, 1929 18'Sheets-Sheet 1e J. SYLVESTER se uziv, 1932.

SHEET GLASS Fonflim AND ANNEALING METHOD A161) APPARATUS Fi led Jan. 21, 1929 IBShe ets-Sheet 17 gwwhto'o Sept. 27, 1932..

JKSYILVESTER SHEET GLASS FORMING AND ANNEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 21, 1929 18 Sheets-Sheet 18 Iatented Sept. '27; 1932 f- UNITED STATES JULIUS SYLVESTER, OF WASHINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO SIMPLE-X ENG i i ,7 9i,9 9

NEERING comrm, or wnsHINeroN, PENNSYLVANIA, n CORPORATION or DELA- WARE.

SHEET emss FORMING AND ANNEALING Mn'rnon AND nrrann'mns Application filed January 21, 1929. sea o. 338,887. 1

Theinvention relates to a sheet glass forming and annealing method and apparatus preferably employing in its practical embodimerit a roller type glass annealing leer, for.

F annealing plate or sheet glass, operating in conjunction wi h a glass rolling apparatus of.

, the intermittent type. One object of the invention is to provide a method of intermittently forming and annealing glass sheets m whereby sheets of great length may be rapidly formed and annealed whilein contact with supporting means traveling at a surface speed equal to or greater than,,i. e., at least as great as, the speed ofsheet formation, but in which the supporting means is so operated as to cause the sheets to have a course of, travel in the annealing leer of -materially greater length than the length of the leer, whereby the rapidly formed sheets maybe subjected m to annealing treatment for a proper time period to securea most eficient annealing action without necessitating the use of an an nealing leer of undesirable or. prohibitive. length. 3

Another object, of the invention is to provide a leer of the roller'type for use in conjunction with the apparatus for intermittent ly rolling sheets of glass, in which leer all the rolls'areadapted to rotate at a high speed, so whichmay be equal to the rate of sheetformation; and in which a portion of the rolls rotate periodically and successively forward and backward so that the progress of the sheet through the leer as a whole is substantially slower than the rate of. sheet formation;

tively high rate of speed by rolling or any ing' that maybe "necessary, thereby resulting in a more. uniform surface of the lass, due to the fact that the rolls will not impart defthe conveyor as above described. Where a-sheet of glass is formed at a relaother means) it is very desirable to maintain this speed until such a time as the glass ormations to the hot glass traveling upon I 6 temperatures in the leer, thereby effecting economies in operation. The rolls revolve in a tunnel where rather high temperatures are maintained and the speed at which the glass is manufactured Will determine whether or not it isnecessary to cool the rollers and also the amount of. cooling that will be necessary. The rolls are preferably made of high heat resistingmetal, tubular in form so as to get maximum strengthv under high tem perature conditions with minimum weight. In the manufacture of plate or sheet glass ithas been the practice to allow glass to. set ona hearth until "it has reached a sufficient v. hardness to prevent sagging and deforming. It was then transferred to the conveyor or leer proper either by hand or by mechanical means, an dthe sheet was moved forward either continuously or intermittentlyfiepending on the mechanical construction. Under 5 this prior system the glass has been rolled ,in

sheets approximately thirty feet long or less and the glass was-allowed to remain on the table a suflicient length of time to chillit until it could be handled by hand and shoved on the above hearth. These hearths had three 1 or more stations and the glass was transferred by mechanical means from one station to the other progressively until transferred on to, The method that will be used in connection" with the present leer is such 'asto'form a; sheet of 'any desired" length, it being'castbe ftween rolls fwhich operate at'quite' a.highspeed, being conveyed into the leer by means 9'0 I .of high speed rollers which would necessitate a leer to be so long as to be impractical, I

if the glass vP s edcontinuously through the leer at this high w The object of the leer to maintain the high speed necessary to prevent deformation of the glass and to reverse certain of the rolls uniformly and intermittently, depend ent entirely on the speed at which the glass 'must travel -to prevent deformation. To dois poured from pots between the rolls, the

H rotation.

casting requiring a given time and there bemg an interval between castsof a suitable 5 duration of time. Both forward and re-' verse speed of the glass -sheets,-which corre-' spond to the peripheral velocity of rolls, are

identically the same as that of the glass sheet formation, and the. difference in distance traversed by'the glass sheet between forward and reverse movement per unit of time is equal to" the length of sheet formed, dividedby the time required to form one sheet and the interval between formation of sheets. For example, if a sheet of glass is formed every ten mmutes and it is eighty feet in length, the forward progress of. the glass sheet in the annealing. leer is eight feet: per minute. One of the important objects of the',invention therefore is to provide a leer comd of a plurality of rolls having means or rotating the rolls at a given speed, and means for periodically reversing the direction of rotation of a predetermined number ofthe rolls without affecting the speed of An automatic system for con- I trolling the operation .ofthe rolls isone of the features of the invention.

Whenkthe sheet of glass first enters the .leer after leaving the glass forming or rolling machine it is desirable that the first rolls while the rolls along the principal portion .of'

the leer are rotating successively and inter-. mittently forwardly and backwardly. In a order to prevent buckling of the sheet of glass in passing tothe reversing rolls there is provi ed a set of transfer rolls intermediate the forwardly operating rolls and the intermittently reversing rolls. This set of trans- 'fer rolls isfirst synchronized with the forwardly rotatingrolls, and then when the en tire sheet is upon the transfer rolls, the movement of these rolls is automatically synchroniredlwith the intermittently reversing'rolls in the remainder of the lee The automatic control of these transfer rolls is another feae. ture of my invention. w

- "In the manufacture of sheet glass in roller leers it is often necessary to remove sheets, -m whole or In part, that have'proved defective in thecasting operation or that have been broken in passage through the leer. In

- order to atzcoiilplish this result inthe present device emergency control is. provided which constitutes iolie of the features of the invention.. Therolls of the leer are arranged in a plurality of sections, and by means of the emergency control the rollsin any given .section or set of sections may be caused to rotate either'forwardly, or rearwardly, or intermittently forwardly and rearwardly.

' Moreover by the use of my control device the relative of forward and rearward ro-,

pear. hereinafter. of theleer rotate in a forward direction only,

stood by in providing the leer with independently removable sections. A further object of the invention is-to provide rolls which may be independently rev moved from the leer without interfering with the driv-mg operatipn of the remaining rolls. A further object 1s to provide an improved heating means whereby-the sides-of the leer may beheated byheating units separate from those which heat the'center 'of'the leer, and also to provide separate heating devicesabove and below the 7 glass conveying mechanism,

whereby uniform heatinga'nd annealing may .be secured. 5

A further object of the invention is to provide manually operated doors at theentrance to the leer which may be closed when-the leer is not in operation to preserve the heatltherein, and which may be opened to permit sheets I of glass to pass into the leer.

A further object .of the invention is to provide an improved means for removing sheets of glass from the leer conveyors.

A further object isto provide specific mechanism for desired results enumerated above.

Further objects of the invention will ap- The invention may be more readily underreference to the accompanyingefliciently accomplishing the drawings in which are shown certain desirable I embodiments of the invention. It be obvious that the invention is not to be limited to the particular embodiments shown, as

many modifications may be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

- Iufthe drawings: i Y a Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the leer. and sheet forming'mechanism.

.Flgure 2'is'a diagrammatic view on an enlarged scale, and partly in section, showing the pounng spout.

c Figure '3 is a longitudinal sectional view of two adjacent sections of the leer at the juncture between the highly heated portion of the leer and the cooling portion, of the leer;

Figure 4 is a transverse section on line 4-4, Figure 3, in the highly heated section.

Figure 5 is a detail view on an enlarged scale, of the detachable roll of Figure4, and

the bearings therefor.

- igure 5:; is a detail view showing a special tool employed removing the rolls shown .inEigure 5.

' Figure6 a sectional View on line 6- 6, Figure '3, showing also the driving mecha--' nism for one of the rolls.

Figure 7 is a front view of the closed portion of the leer showing the slidable doors.

Figures 8-and 8a are diagrammatic views 

